Rescue No Longer: Trump Says Stuff About Abortion

I had every intention of staying totally away from politics and seriousness all week on this blog. I am, after all, supposed to be indulging in a brief moment of rest before the intense sprint through the rest of Easter season, which includes the wrapping up of my school year. I’ve got lots coming up, and so I should be lazing around reading novels and ignoring anything at all of importance.

However, for heaven’s sake, I can’t pass up this amazing opportunity, which may not occur again for at least three or four days, to comment on Trump’s astounding comments that sure, abortion should be illegal, and if it were, sure, let’s prosecute the women.

This isn’t really how I wanted to re-engage about this subject. In fact, I had the opportunity to read this article in Christianity Today, by Karen Swallow Prior, in which she articulates her incredible journey in the pro-life movement. A long while ago I quibbled over whether or not using the word “murder”, especially in a counseling situation, is helpful to describe what is happening. Dr. Prior doesn’t think so, and not because she is a squish, but because she has put her money, and her time, and her convictions where her mouth is. Reading about the history of the movement, and her involvement in it, especially in this area of the country, was so helpful and eye opening to me.

Of course, I’m coming at it with the ignoble and terrible shame of having participated in a denomination that, while brave people like Dr. Prior were out trying to save lives, coordinated together to stop all those efforts. Good Shepherd herself (before my time) joined with other Episcopal churches to rally around Planned Parenthood. The rector of the church across the river joined their board. Ordinary episcopalians everywhere gathered to promote and encourage everything that Operation Rescue was trying to stop.

And really, there’s the word “rescue”. Rescuing women and babies, not rounding them up and shoving them in a prison cell. All this time we’ve been talking about how to “rescue”, how to rescue the child from death, and how to give proper agency to the woman carrying the life. She is a victim, but not a victim akin to the helpless child in her womb. She has power to decide what happens to herself and a whole other person. She should make a decision. She should have all the information she needs about whether or not to end that life. What words should the persuading one use to persuade? What help should be offered to make her choice and burden lighter and more bearable? What can an individual do to help and care for another individual facing a terrible moral dilemma? Now, though, thanks to Trump, I guess we don’t need to worry about how helpful or unhelpful the use of the word “murder” might be in the context of talking to an individual pausing on the street, considering whether to go in and do something drastic.

Oh, I know, we’ve seen horrific videos of people describing the cutting up of babies for the sale of their parts. We know what happens. We know it’s a small person whose life is suddenly over. And we know a lot about the woman. Each woman who walks in is just as individually and profoundly made as the baby inside her. In spite of her agency, if ever there was a victim being sacrificed on the alter of the gods of this age, she is that victim. Everyone, EVERYONE, is lying to her about what her life should be, and how she should live, and what has meaning, and what is of value, and what will make her happy. She goes in being sold a lie that if she gets past this moment, she will be happy and everything will be ok.

Any why shouldn’t she believe? The church, or many factions of it, has lied to her about who God is, and what happiness is, and what life is for. The culture has sold her a lie. The politicians of the age have filled their pockets with the money that bought her that lie.

That unremarkable word, so helpful for everyone thinking and praying about this issue has been–‘rescue’–to just be jettisoned, entirely? No, we want to rescue, to restore, to pray for, to take care of the woman and her child, not destroy them, devour them, shame them more, and now apparently, lock them up.

How unhelpful, really, and how like him–the Buffoon Trump wandering in to say some stuff. He brags about his sexual exploits. He brags about himself. He brags about everything. He has no desire or inclination to understand what is happening to the individual woman who walks through a door that promises every kind of relief and happiness, only to walk out carrying the burden of an ended life for the rest of her own life.

Wake up America. We can’t be great again right now. We need to start by being sorry. And that goes for Hillary and the Bern more than anyone. We can’t continue to slaughter “the least of these” and destroy their mothers, and get anywhere or do anything. A culture that devours itself isn’t worth but a handful of dust. Greatness, forsooth. It’s time to gather up all the dust and pour it over our heads and beg for mercy.